Although Pakistani military establishments and personnel have been attacked by the militants sporadically since early 2003, attack on Pakistan army's unit in Quetta (August 12, 2017) merely 48 hours before the country's 70th Independence Day celebrations (August 14, 2017), has caused ripples in Pakistan's civil and military establishments.

An
on duty truck of the Pakistan army's elite Frontier Corps (FC) was
attacked by a suicidal bomber in Quetta (Balochistan)
on August 12, 2017, resulting into immediate death of 15 people out
of whom
eight were FC personnel. The
attack also caused
serious injuries to 40 others and damage to a number trucks of the
FC.

In
Focus

The
attack was carried out by the Islamic State (IS). Khorasan province
(Afghanistan) based "The Middle East Group" which is an affiliate
of the
Islamic
State
in Afghanistan and Pakistan issued a statement immediately after the
attack and claimed responsibility for
the attack carried out by a motorcycle-borne
suicidal bomber of the
IS.
20 to 30 kilograms of
explosive
was used by the attacker, which he had concealed in his vest.

Since
the
militant
attack
on
Pakistan's military unit was carried out
when the country was preparing to celebrate its
70th
Independence
Day, the attack has been
condemned
by the highest echelons of Pakistani rulers, including President
Mamnoon Hussain, Chief Minister of
Balochistan
Nawab Sanaullah Khan Zehri, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif and Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

General
Bajwa, in a statement, described the attack as an attempt to mar the
festivities
of Pakistan's Independence
Day
celebrations and resolved not to succumb such militant attacks. He
also rushed to Quetta and chaired a high-level
security meeting and reviewed the
security situation there. Pakistan's Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal,
on the directions
of Prime Minister Abbasi also visited
Quetta to
take stock of the prevailing
situation for further briefing Prime Minister Abbasi.

The
most recent attack on the Frontier Corps unit in Quettta is a sequel
to the recent militant attacks there. On July 13, 2017, a
Superintendent of Police (SP) and his three guards were killed in
Quetta by militants belonging to Tehrik-e-Taliban (Pakistan) and a
blast had also occurred (July 11, 2017) near District Police
Officer's (DPO's) office in Chaman (Balochistan).

Significantly,
in the period from 2003 till August 12, 2017, a total of 62388 people
have been killed in Pakistan in terror attacks, out of which 6795
belonged to Pakistani military or were security personnel. The
remaining 21889 and 33704 killed were civilians and terrorists,
respectively. While the least number (24) of Pakistani military and
security personnel were killed in the year 2003, the maximum (991)
deaths of Pakistani military men took place in the year 2009. This
upward trend in killings of Pakistani military and security personnel
started in the year 2006 and since then, 6506 of them, about 96 per
cent have been killed in various terror attacks in different places
in Pakistan till August 12, 2017. In the current year, 2017, till
August 12, a total of 891 people have lost their lives, out of which
132 were Pakistan military-security men, 400 were civilians and the
remaining 359 were terrorists.

Notably,
this trend of attacking Pakistani military establishments and
installations by militant organisations started in early 2003, when
General Pervez Musharraf pro-actively started banning militant
organisations. It was General Musharraf (12 October, 1999-18 August,
2008) who was a key ally in USA's fight against terrorism post
Al-Qaeda sponsored 9/11 attack of 2001 on American soil. There after,
Musharraf started a crackdown on militants in Pakistan at the behest
of the US, which resulted in chain reactions and militants
retaliating furiously by targeting Pakistani military establishments
in the country.

After
sectarian violence erupted in Pakistan in
early 2002, General
Musharraf banned Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, along
with
some other sectarian militant groups, including
the Sunni radical group
Sipah-e-Sahaba
Pakistan and its Shia rival, the Shiite Tehrik-e-Jafria. Following
these
bans, three
attempts were
made on
General
Musharraf's life in 2002 and another
two
within a
span of two
weeks in the year 2003. Moreover, in
February 2007, a suicide bomber also attempted to kill the then Prime
Minister Shaukat Aziz, and then in
April 2007, the Taliban targeted the erstwhile
Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao.

Since
then, Pakistani military, its personnel and installations have
witnessed a number of major retaliatory attacks by banned militant
organisations like Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), Al-Qaeda and
Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LeJ).

The
most
formidable
militant attack was carried out on Pakistan army's General
Headquarters (GHQ) at Rawalpindi by 10 militants of the
TTP's
Amjad Farooqi Group on October 10, 2009. The attack was planned by
Aqeel Ahmed alias Dr Usman, the
then
head of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan's Amjad Farooqui Group; Ustad
Aslam Yasin and Ilyas Kashmiri of TTP, with the aim to take military
officers hostage. During the attack, 22 civilian and military
officials were held hostage by the militants in GHQ, who were later
rescued
by Special Service Group (SSG) commandos of Pakistan army, Army
Special Forces and the 13th Regular Regiment's army men. During the
attack, nine soldiers, nine militants and two civilians were killed.

Then,
on May 22, 2011, Pakistan's naval base 'PNS Mehran' located in
Karachi was attacked by five armed militants belonging to TTP and
Al-Qaeda. Militants used rocket-propelled grenades and destroyed
three warplanes; two anti-submarine and marine surveillance aircraft;
and also a helicopter. During the attack, 18 Pakistani military
personnel and four militants were killed and 16 others were injured.
The attack and the eventual rescue operation lasted for a total of 17
hours. Earlier, on April 26 and 28, Pakistan Defense Officers Housing
Authority complex at Karachi and a bus carrying navy personnel was
attacked by TTP at the entrance of PNS Mehran, respectively, in which
a total of 10 naval officers were killed and 56 were injured.

Later,
Pakistan Air Force's Minhas airbase, located in Kamra in Attock
(Punjab-Pakistan) was also attacked on August 16, 2012 by nine
militants, belonging to the TTP, who were armed with automatic
weapons, grenades and suicide vests. All nine militants were killed
in the attack and one Pakistani soldier also lost his life. The then
TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan had, however, claimed that more than a
dozen security personnel inside the air base were killed by the TTP
militants who had also destroyed three JF-17 thunder aircraft. He had
also said that the airbase was attacked to take revenge of the
killings of Al-Qaeda Chief Osama bin Laden, the TTP Amir Baitullah
Mehsud and other fighters who had been killed by the Pakistani
security forces.

TTP's
militant attacks on Pakistani military establishments continued
unabated and on December 15, 2012, ten terrorists belonging to the
TTP and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) jointly attacked a
Pakistani airbase located inside Bacha Khan International Airport,
Peshawar, by firing five rockets from a nearby village named Abdra.
While five terrorists and four civilians were killed, forty others
were also injured. TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan, again claimed
responsibility for the attack and warned that his organisation would
carry out more such attacks in the future.

Again,
on August 15, 2014, thirteen terrorists belonging to the TTP
simultaneously attacked two bases at Samungli and Khalid of the
Pakistan Air Force, located southwest of Quetta city. While airbases'
security personnel foiled the attacks, 12 militants were killed and
another 12 people were injured, including one militant. The
responsibility of the attacks was taken by one Mehsud, a militant
commander of Fidayeen Islam wing of TTP.

Subsequently,
on 8 June, 2014, ten militants of TTP attacked Jinnah International
Airport, Karachi, in which 36 people, including ten militants were
killed and 18 others were left
wounded.
While attackers originally belonged to Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan, TTP owned
responsibility for the attack as a
retaliation
for the death of its former chief Hakimullah Mehsud, who was killed
in North Waziristan in an American drone attack in November 2013.

To
check the unabated terrorist attacks on its military establishments,
the then Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif launched (June 15,
2014) a joint military operation 'Zarb-e-Azb' (sharp and cutting
strike) in Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) bordering with
Afghanistan, which virtually lasted till his retirement on November
29, 2016. It was claimed by the Pakistan army that during the
operation more than 3500 militants were killed while around 490
soldiers lost their lives. It was also claimed that 992 militant
hideous were destroyed; 253 tons of explosives was confiscated; 7500
bomb factories were dismantled; 2800 mines removed and 3500 rockets
and mortars were recovered during the operation.

However,
operation Zarb-e-Azb attracted criticism from various quarters as it
was launched without political clearance from the then Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif. Human
rights violations were
allegedly done
by the army during
the course of the operation,
and also,
there was no independent source(s)
to verify and authenticate the
claims made by the Pakistan army about the success of the operation.
While the
number of terror attacks came down in Pakistan during the operation,
the severity of militant attacks and number of causalities increased
considerably, which
included the
killing
of 132 school children of Army Public School in
Peshawar
on December 16,
2014.

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